Cactuses? Cacti? Whatever they are called, we saw plenty of them in the beautiful Phoenix landscapes.
Our days were free for exploring until 4pm, and everyone had a unique experience. I hear stories of Gleeks who went hiking up the dusty mountain trails or in Papago Park; others visited museums, tried out a shooting range, or even went scorpion hunting. On my end, I saw a wonderful sampling of Arizona wilderness in the Botanical Garden. We all enjoyed the “cold” day Phoenix had to offer.
The Musical Instrument Museum (or MIM), gave us free passes before our rehearsal. As the day progressed, more and more gleeks trickled into the beautiful galleries exposing musical traditions, instruments, video and audio from all around the globe. We wandered in the museum for as long as possible.
At 4pm we met in the concert hall for rehearsal. The very good acoustics had us singing on our toes.
Lite, the a cappella subset, also rehearsed their repertoire before the concert. We were all excited and slightly nervous with our first concert fast approaching.
The concert itself was a fantastic experience for both us singers and the audience. We sung Renaissance counterpoint, folk tunes, spirituals, Harvard specialties and much more, and the full house was very responsive to our engagement, music, and silly jokes being thrown around during announcements.
After a fulfilling first concert we made it back to our hosts’ houses, and enjoyed our first post-concert night.